Lincoln Prep leads the way.

Byline: Joe Robertson

Oct. 4--"You could tell they wanted this preparation. They wanted to rise to the occasion."

English teacher Ruby Jeffers on the Lincoln Prep Students

Not everything in the confusion of a reshuffled statewide test of Missouri schools was hard to sort out.

Lincoln College Preparatory Academy left no doubt. The Kansas City school finally soared the way its teachers -- and its students -- always thought it could, and should.

"We wanted to prove we could do well on this test," senior Audrey Goebel said.

When the results of the Missouri Assessment Program, or MAP, arrived earlier this school year, Lincoln Principal Regina Ellis announced them over the public address system.

In math, 67.4 percent of Lincoln high school and middle school students tested last spring scored proficient or better. In communication arts, 77.4 percent hit the mark.

"We'd finally done it," junior Darrell Hyche said, remembering the cheers that went up that morning.

As a whole, the students at Lincoln had embraced the burden that the district's college prep school had to take the lead and show what Kansas City School District students were capable of doing, Darrell said.

"We didn't want to perpetrate what was being said," he said. "If we did well, it would show that good things are going on in our district."

How good?

The…